Low-Key Handmade Exchange signal boost / chain maille pics

[cahn]

karanguni is hosting a Low-Key Handmade Exchange. The idea is to "work down your existing stash of materials and/or get motivated to make something by doing something small and nice for someone. Whatever you offer to create shouldn't stress you out either financially or emotionally, but rather be a nice, low-key way for you to engage with your discipline of choice!" Anyone is welcome! I think there are a couple of people who read this DW who might be interested? (but maybe you knew about it already)

This is… exactly the kind of event I need, as I personally have a rather large stash of shiny anodized aluminum rings I've used to make chain maille bracelets, but lately I haven't been making any. (The anodizing process, interestingly, is FDA approved for cookware — not that I'd recommend eating with them or eating them, mind you — and although it can be scratched with steel, it's fairly hard.)

I thought I'd show you some of what I've made :)


The "Byzantium" weave is a classic one and is one of my favorites :D It's complex enough that my hands don't get bored while making it, but simple enough that I can do it while my mind is concentrating on something else, and it looks really neat (in my opinion). Would be happy to make this particular weave for the swap because I know I'll be able to get it finished even if I get really busy. [Can make Byzantine 18G for swap - have silver-tone, purple, light blue, blue rings]

The above is one I made for E. in a "Frozen" theme. It's a little hard to tell, but it's got silver-toned, light-blue, and bright-blue rings, 18G rings. (Well, I think of it as a "Frozen" theme, anyway. E. doesn't care about that kind of thing.)

Here's a little bit I got started with tinier 20G gold-toned aluminum rings. I find 20G very cute :D Some people apparently make this weave in 22G which I don't think I'd be able to handle! [Can make Byzantine 20G for swap - gold tone rings only]

Here's a different weave. I believe this is a variant of Half Persian but I'm not sure, oops. 18G rings. (ETA: I looked it up and it is Sandstone. I think I would also be able to make this variant for the swap.) [Yeah, sure. Can make Sandstone or similar for swap - have 18G silver-tone and blue only.]

[No picture yet, but I can make a very thin Dragonscale variant for swap -- about half the width of the one with the picture below. Blue small rings and mixed color large rings only.]

I have almost wholly made 1D-ish chains; my only foray into 2D chain maille has been because E. asked me to make her a helmet. It's only about half finished. In order to make it less work for me, it's a very loose weave and therefore wouldn't actually function as chainmail in any kind of meaningful way, but it's still pretty cool. (These rings are raw/uncoated aluminum and not as shiny as the other stuff; the anodized didn't come in large enough sizes.) 16G rings.

The copper scales on it E. bought when I bought the rings, and she's added them on herself. (I told her I was willing to make the helmet for her, but if she wanted scales she had to put them on herself.)

This weave is called Dragonscale and I am not making it for the swap (unless I figure out how to do it more quickly between now and Jan 31 [Edit: I have figured it out; I can make one that is about half this width]) because it takes forever. (There are two different sizes of rings involved; the smaller ones are blue.) Anyway, A. asked for a "randomly-colored" Dragonscale bracelet, so here is my attempt, although it is going veeeeeery sloooooowly. 18G and 22G rings; the 18G rings are larger than the ones used for Byzantium. (One of the kind of annoying things about doing chain maille is that different weaves require different "aspect ratios," the ratio of the (internal) diameter of the ring to the diameter of the wire. So to do three different weaves you might have to get three different sets of rings with different aspect ratios!)

I have some other fun bits of different weaves that I wanted to show you guys but I'm not entirely sure where I put them — I found them in E's room and took them away so they wouldn't be lost, and now I've lost them :( I suppose I should have left them in E's room… Anyway, if I find them I'll post again :)

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

because E. asked me to make her a helmet.

I like the way your daughter thinks! XD (also, that's very cool that you are embarking on such a big project for her!)

The Dragonscale weave bracelet-in-progress looks AMAZING!

[cahn]

Hee. I gave her my old D&D Players Handbook a couple months back and she reeeeeally likes it, to the point where I then had to limit the amount of time she spent reading it so that I could get her to do other things! But yes, she's all about swords and magical artifacts and helmets and polearms and priest spells and so on :)

Dragonscale is really the coolest weave! I love it a lot. I was a little dubious of A's "random color" idea before implementing it but it really looks very cool!

[zdenka]

Shiny!

[cahn]

:D What can I say, I love shiny things, including aluminum :D If I were an animal I'd probably be a magpie :P

[zdenka]

That's not a criticism! They're shiny and pretty. :) I'm fond of shiny things myself.

[cahn]

Oh! I didn't think it was a criticism, sorry if it came across that way! I just... really like shiny things :) Also, I adore your icon and that is what I would want to be if I were an animal DW icon :D

[zdenka]

Haha, thanks! I'm fond of it myself. I got it from an old icon comm on LJ.

[(Anonymous)]

I can appreciate the intricacy of the first two, but the half-Persian (?) one is more attractive visually to me - there's something about the empty spaces at the edges of the silver rings that's very pleasant to look at.

Wow, that dragon scale really does look intense.

I wibbled on signing up and decided not - I'm so rusty on seed-beading and friendship bracelets that I'm not sure I can pick an adequate offering that would also be low-stress. I hope there's pictures of everything that gets made, though!

[morbane]

Whoops, that was me.

[cahn]

Ohhhh, that's interesting! I had assumed people would like the Byzantine better. I should probably amend my writeup because I'd be happy to make another relatively simple weave as well as Byzantine :)

(I did look it up and the weave is called "Sandstone," though I guess it's related to Persian weaves somehow :) )

[skygiants]

Those are all so pretty! The dragonscale especially is just gorgeous, but they're all really extremely nice.

[cahn]

Thank you! :D Yeah, the dragonscale is pretty amazing, with the two different ring types playing off each other. I have to admit that for me there is also a coolness factor from being called "Dragonscale," although it's pretty obvious how it got its name :D

[thistleingrey]

I lost this browser tab for ... a while, I guess! Sorry. I love the Sandstone weave--though all of these are amazing.

[cahn]

:) Thank you!

I really like the Sandstone weave too! (Though was surprised that others like it... why? I'm not sure why I was surprised. Because the appeal is a little more abstract than the sort of ornate appeal of the Byzantium, perhaps. Though when I put it that way, it rather makes sense :) )